


The Bug

by graywhatsit



Series: Hatbots [6]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Gen, Hat Films, hatbots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 14:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4104949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graywhatsit/pseuds/graywhatsit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex Smith needs to check his code.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. error

**Author's Note:**

> you'll see what i mean by death.

It happened to Trott, first.

Just completely out of nowhere, too.

The three of them were just sitting around- Alex couldn’t quite remember what they were doing, probably playing a game or something- and..

Trott just sat up straight, eyes going completely glassy and unfocused, and he _twitched_. A great spasm, going through his whole body, nearly knocking him off the couch.

“What the fuck?” Alex yelped, surprised, scooting back a little. The other android instead moved towards their companion.

“Trott? What’s going on, what’s happening?” His blue eyes were glowing, as they often did during times like these, when feeling overrode processing. One hand reached for him, and the moment it touched Trott’s shoulder…

He blinked, looking towards Ross. “Yeah? What is it, mate?”

“What is it?” The sole human of the group got a startled look for his outburst. “You just had some sort of fucking _fit_ , that’s what!” Ross could only nod his agreement.

“Uh.. _no_ , I didn’t.” Trott’s forehead wrinkled, confused. “I didn’t have a fit, I was just sitting here. As far as I remember.”

The less-emotionally driven, engineering part of Alex’s brain started to take over. “You remember nothing at all? No shutdown, no error message? How do you feel?”

“I feel fine- and stop scanning me!” The smaller of the constructs swiped a hand at Ross, still watching him intently.

“Someone needs to make sure you actually _are_ alright.” **< Outer casing intact. Endoskeleton intact, no oxidization or corrosion. Hydraulics and cooling systems at 100%->**

“I’m _fine_! If I thought I wasn’t, I’d _tell_ you!” Trott interrupted his processing, glaring at his friend. “Not every little thing means some malfunction!”

“Hey, hey, calm down! We just want to be sure. It may have just been a hiccup- you both get those sometimes, right?” The androids mumbled an affirmative. “Just a little thing- but if it happens again, we need to check up on you, make sure it isn’t a serious problem.”

The creation huffed, turning back to the large screen before them. “Yeah, fine. Can we get back to it, now?”

Feeling he was more than through talking about it, his friends dropped the issue. When Trott was finished talking about something, nothing would get him talking again.

Even though he could distinctly remember the stinging cold and blinking ERROR message.

 

It happened more and more often as time went on, but the other two never saw it. They’d become busier over the past few weeks- new classes, new projects, new responsibilities and demands- so no one was ever really around to see it.

But it absolutely _terrified_ Trott.

He had no idea what was causing it- not a single scan showed anything: no virus, bug, or glitch, as far as he could tell. There was no pattern, either. Seconds to hours, trembling or violent jerks of his body, any time of day.. the only time it didn’t happen was at night, when he was recharging.

But he couldn’t tell them. What if they couldn’t find what was wrong, either? What if they could, but they really couldn’t fix it?

…What if they shut him off?

That instilled a new panic in the android, and even further strengthened his resolve not to mention it. He didn’t want to die, no one ever does, not really.

So he kept quiet, kept it hidden as best he could, but nothing like this can ever stay hidden for very long.

Not when it starts happening to someone else, too.

 

Ross’ was at dinnertime, none of them could forget that. The long crack in the wood of the table made sure of that fact.

They didn’t eat, of course, not after Ross’ little escapade with the digestive system, but the pair did like to keep their human friend company. It was a nice time to talk about what had gone on that day, what would be coming up.

And in the middle of the taller construct’s story about his group in his film course, he fell silent, got that glassy-eyed look, limbs immediately going rigid. Feeling dread weigh down their hearts, the pair watched him for any sign of the same trembling or jerking motions Trott had, only to find nothing. He was running, yes, but completely still.

Until Trott reached out to touch him.

The second his fingers brushed even the fabric of his shirt, the corresponding arm _jerked_ forward, slamming into the wooden dining table. A long crack formed along the grain of the wood, and both of Ross’ friends moved back, startled.

When he finally blinked, he didn’t take on the same confused look as his friend had done. He went directly for the honest approach: well and truly _scared_.

“Trott,” he started, voice glitching a little, “you can’t tell me you didn’t remember that. You can’t, there’s no way you couldn’t.”

“Wait, Ross.. you remembered?” Alex turned to face Trott. “If he did, you must have.”

“I didn’t.” His answer was far too sharp, too short. He could never hide anything from them, no matter how hard he tried.

“You _had_ to have!” Ross argued, raising his voice a little. “That error message said-”

“Don’t.”

The engineer took hold of his arm. “Trott, let him tell us! Maybe we can figure out what’s wrong, then.”

After the gesture telling him to go ahead, Ross took a deep breath. Just as he opened his mouth, however-

“I _know_ what it says! There are only so many times you can read something before you’re sick of hearing it!”

Alex’s grip tightened. “You didn’t tell me it happened again. Trott-”

“It’s _fine_.” He attempted to pull his arm away, but for his strength, his creator held firm. “It doesn’t happen often, you can get by with it, and-”

Ross watched him, wide-eyed. “Often? So more than two times?”

“That’s not what I said!”

“Sure as hell sounded like it. Come on, we’re checking this out, _now_.” Alex got up from his seat, pulling Trott along behind him to the workshop.

 

It took both his own and Ross’ strength to muscle their friend into the room- he dug in his heels, more terrified of this than facing these little fits. Alex really hated to do these sorts of things, but honestly- not taking care of this could hurt him more than this little manhandling did. Ends justify the means and all that.

Without much more than a bit of an apology, Alex had Ross hold him whilst he put him in maintenance mode, unwilling to turn him off fully in case of an actual crash upon startup.

“You said it’s nothing to do with the body?” The human glanced up at Ross, pausing at the little terminal used for accessing code.

He nodded. “The body’s fine, it’s just.. something else. Software, not hardware.”

Somewhere, in all of the code buried in this android, was this single, awful little bug. Taking a deep breath to steady himself for the task of checking each and every line, Alex set to work.

 

Ross could only stand there, watching Alex’s face as he checked and double checked, watching his face grow steadily paler and paler. By the time he had reached the very last line, he was surprised the human was still standing.

“Smith?” He looked up, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen someone look so hopeless.

“I can’t fix it.”

“What?” That was like.. that was like saying he couldn’t _breathe_ _._ “You _created_ us, you can fix anything!”

The redhead shook his head. “I can’t. I really don’t know how to fix this, Ross. I made a huge mistake when writing it all, and I never even fucking _noticed_.” A hand immediately went to his hair, scratching, mussing it even further.

“Mistakes can be fixed, right? You can’t just give up!”

“I genuinely can’t fix this one. Not yet, I- I don’t _know_ enough. There’s something wrong in both of your codes, and it’s too big, too complicated to fix yet.”

Yet. “That means you can, eventually!” There’s a bit of hope, and he’d cling to that as long as possible. “You can keep us running until then, I know it.”

“Every new fit is a step closer to being irreparable. A few more, and..” As blunt as he usually was, Alex couldn’t bring himself to be at that moment. “Who knows how long it could take? You know what I need to do, don’t you?”

Ross did, but that didn’t mean he _wanted_ it to. “Wake him up.”

“What?”

“Wake him up. Explain it to him, at least. You told me, so tell him- he deserves to know what’s happening.”

“Ross, he won’t like it-”

“You won’t even say goodbye to him?” He couldn’t meet Ross’ eyes, not with that look he was giving him. “You love him, don’t you? Just like I do. Fucking _say_ something, don’t just leave him with nothing.” His eyes were starting to glow again.

How could he really respond to that? With a heavy sigh, Alex put in the command to wake Trott up.

“I fucking hate both of you,” were the first words the android said upon sitting up, glaring at his companions. “You can’t just carry me around and do whatever the fuck you want- what’s wrong?” Upon seeing the- admittedly _heartbroken_ \- looks on his friend’s faces, his anger eased.

“Trott,” Ross started, quietly, “… he can’t fix us. Not right now.”

No. No, no, no, this is not- “You can’t? Can’t you _try_?”

He didn’t quite sound angry, but desperate.

“It’s too big and messy, and I honestly, sincerely have no idea how I could fix it. Trott, believe me, I would if I could, instantly. You know that.” His friend looked genuine enough, but his fear started to override him.

“So what are you going to do now, huh? Try and keep us going until then?” That’d be better than what he had thought, please, Smith, don’t shake your head-

And he did.

“I’m so sorry, Chris Trott,” he started, softly, and both androids could see his eyes shining. “But until I know more… good night.”

His eyes widened, fearful, and Trott backed away as much as he could. “No, no, please! Don’t turn me off, please, I’ll do anything! There has to be something else, please don’t let me-”

 

It had been two months since he turned them off.

Then three.

He could hardly sleep for the first week, then maybe a few hours for the next few, thinking of him _begging_ not to be shut off, and how Ross was equally as terrified, as resigned as he was.

His best friends gone because of his own stupidity.

But he poured himself into learning code, learning bug fixes, learning every in and out and around of the entire trade, as much time as he could spare.

Because Alex Smith needed his best friends back.


	2. reboot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the second part!

The second after Ross’ eyes closed, the workroom once again growing silent, Alex Smith broke down.

Not a full breakdown, but about as close as he could get. He hadn’t cried in years, but when your two best friends lay in front of you, looking asleep though for all intents and purposes _dead_ … It takes a heart of stone not to shed at least one tear, and Alex, for all his appearances, did not have anything _close_.

It didn’t last long, however- he had things to do, and crying any longer left less time to work on them. So, after sitting up and drying his cheeks, the engineer set to work.

 

For a while, after moving all of their things to the workroom- at least, everything he could fit inside it- Alex didn’t return to them. He couldn’t go in and see them like that, be reminded of his own mistake.

He avoided that room like the plague, lest he break down again.

Instead, he spent as much time as he could, going over his entire knowledge of code, relearning what he’d forgotten, sharpening dulled skills. He needed to know where he’d gone wrong- then, maybe, he could fix it.

When he was back at his peak, however, an incredibly quick look at their code- one that left him on the verge- showed what he thought: he simply did not know enough. He didn’t know what he needed to fix it.

And that meant learning it.

When he wasn’t at work, he was taking lessons, classes, being taught and teaching himself everything he could possibly learn.

As you can imagine, he didn’t get much sleep.

When he did, he dreamed in code: green or white on pitch black, line after line, command after command. He’d wake up, thinking he had a solution, rushing to test it, to no avail. He did it every night, for god knows how long, even after completing his lessons- he had to keep trying.

And that’s exactly how he found the solution.

 

It was a night like all the rest of them, his REM sleep used to run over the same code he’d painstakingly memorized over several sleepless nights. The errors seemed glaring, bright neon against the more subdued white and pitch black of the console. They mocked him with their radiance, showing just how much he’d fucked up.

Showing what, exactly, had cost his friends their lives.

He didn’t know it, but he cringed in his sleep.

Finally, he reached the very end, as he always did, and his programmer’s mind immediately went back to the errors, as if marked by a flag. This was the problem solving portion of his night, and he needed to work.

Everything he put in as a solution worked perfectly, as always in his dreams, but something felt different about this one. It actually felt complete, like this was finally it- the thing that could bring them back for good.

He sincerely hoped that feeling was right.

Each error was resolved faster than the last, and his excitement grew as each neon color faded back into white, signifying a fix; the instant he reached the end, he awoke, immediately reaching for the paper he’d taken to keeping on the bedside table. He needed to write down the solution, before he could forget.

This was _important_.

 

Hurry, hurry, get to the workroom, who even cares if you’re still in your boxers.

God, they’re still there, same position as the last time he’d left them (only yesterday morning, but still).

Who first- Trott. First to be created, first to be brought back to life. Only fair.

Open the control panel, get to his code, look at the solution again- damnit, hands, stop _shaking_ , I can’t _read_ -

Quick, type. Type it in, replace the corruptions, fix him, _fix him_.

Everything’s done, now. Wake. Up.

Alex closed his eyes, hoping and hoping, crossing his fingers and even clasping his hands together. Let this work, _please_.

 

…..

 

“…Why are you half naked?”

 

What.

Alex’s eyes opened wide in shock, and he looked up to see Trott, half amused and half wary.

“Smith? Are you- why are you _hugging_ me and half naked?”

That was entirely unexpected, but neither _really_ cared. Maybe a little.

Nah.

“Shut _up_ , Trott,” the engineer replied, though there was no bite in the words. Only affection, reserved for those incredibly rare moments between any of the three of them.

“It’s a legitimate question- and you need to wake up Ross, too.”

“Do I?”

“ _Yes_ , Smith.” There was that amused tone again. “And that means you have to actually let go. I don’t even need to breathe and you’re crushing the air out of me.”

Alex huffed- he didn’t want to let go of his friend, feeling that he’d just fall back down, dead as before, if he did- but he finally moved away, heading for the other construct’s panel. Trott took the opportunity to get up off of the bench and work his unused legs. They may not be true muscles, but his parts needed a stretch.

His friend typed for a few minutes, hunched over Ross’ panel, and a little while after he closed up, the android sat up, blue eyes glowing briefly as he scanned the room, finally landing on Alex.

“…Why are you-”

“Don’t ask, mate,” Trott interrupted. “He didn’t tell me, either. Oh, watch out-”

“Hey, get off! Trott!”

“I got my own share, I’m staying-” An arm wrapped around his shoulders, bringing him into the hug.

“Come on, Trotty, you know you love it.”

“Can you deactivate me again?”

“I dunno, mate, I’m quite enjoying it.”

“Of course you would, you big _puppy_.”

“I’m not a-”

“Shut _up_ , both of you. We’re having a moment, shhh…”

 

And that’s pretty much how they stayed the day his friends came back to life.


End file.
